The Turner Ink blog contains rants, bloopers, observations and opinions. It also has handy tips on grammar and punctuation such as colons: semicolons; and full stops. As well as some very useful ‘how tos’. Feel free to leave comments. Be nice though.

Turner Ink

Copywriting Services London

Full stops. Inside or outside of brackets?

19th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

Ok, this is a short answer. A full stop appears inside the brackets, if the bracket contains a complete sentence.

She wore the red dress that evening. (Her sister wore the gold one.)
John needed the answer for question 7. (Jeff was struggling with question 1.)

The full stop appears outside of the brackets if the brackets don’t contain a complete sentence.

She wore the red dress that evening (and her sister wore the gold one).
John needed the answer for question 7 (however Jeff was struggling with question 1).

Simple, no?


Tags: brackets, full stops
Posted in Punctuation tips | comments icon 20 Comments »

Mitchell’s what? Don’t open the door…

17th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

There’s probably a gag here about juicy plums and huge melons. But no, no…I won’t stoop so low. I’ll just let the picture speak for itself.  

Mitchell's van


Tags: slogans, straplines
Posted in Bloopers | comments icon No comments yet »

Is apps a real word now?

16th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

We’re all familiar with the Apple iPhone ads. (You’re not? Where have you been?)

Those TV and press ads, where they discuss all the apps you can get at the Apple App Store for your iPhone. There’s an app for dividing a restaurant bill. An app for finding out where your friends are. And an app for discovering if you’re a moron or not. (Seriously. Currently only 99c instead of the usual $2.99. Go to the Apple App Store to download your app now.)

Apps from the Apple App Store

We all know that app is short for application. But it used to be a bit of a geeky word didn’t it? And not an actual real word.

But have you noticed it’s now become mainstream? Not app. with a full stop to show it’s been shortened. But just app on its own. As bold as you like.

And despite the fact it’s acknowledged by most online dictionaries as ‘an informal and shortened version of computer application’, and not an actual word, I’m with Apple on this one.

Because advertising copywriting is all about using the language of the people you’re trying to reach. (And with Apple iPhones, users are more likely to be 18-24, male, and from an affluent urban background. And trust me they’re gonna use the word app.) It’s not about using perfect English. If a word has moved into everyday use but has not yet reached the Oxford English Dictionary, so what? Use it anyway.

Which only leaves one question: what app shall I download today? The abs workout or Peggle?


Tags: straplines, words
Posted in Copywriting, Word stuff | comments icon No comments yet »

Would I lie to you? When to use lay and when to use lie

12th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

To lay and to lie are two verbs which are so often interchanged that no-one actually knows which is the right one to use. (Full disclosure: I often get it wrong and have to look it up. It happens to the best of us.)   

So what’s the difference between lay and lie?

To lay is a transitive verb (a verb which needs an object) and means to place or to put.

Let’s see that in action.  

Present tense: Today I lay the book on the desk.
Past tense: Yesterday I laid the book on the desk.
Present perfect tense: I have laid the book on the desk.
Present continuous tense: I am laying the book on the desk.

 
Now the verb to lie is an intransitive verb (a verb which doesn’t need an object) and means to recline or to rest horizontally.

So let’s see how that works.

Present tense: Today I lie on the bed.
Past tense: Yesterday I lay on the bed.
Present perfect tense: I have lain on the bed all day.
Present continuous tense: I am lying on the bed.

Aha. Now we can see where the confusion is. The present tense of to lay: ‘today I lay the book on the table’ is the same as the past tense of to lie: ‘Yesterday I lay on the bed’. No wonder we all get in a muddle.   

So what’s the easiest way to remember? Print this page out and stick it on your notice board.

How do you remember? Any tips? Leave them in the comments.


Tags: verbs
Posted in Grammar tips | comments icon No comments yet »

SEO copywriting: everything you need to know about page titles

3rd
Jun
by Sarah Turner

If you’re looking to optimise your website, and make it as easy as possible for the search engines to find you, you need to get your page titles absolutely spot on.

It’s true that Google take about a zillion things into consideration before showing your website on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Ok, I exaggerate; it’s about 200 things, including keywords, content and links. But one of the most important is the page title. Why? Perhaps it gives Google a really good idea as to what a particular web page is all about.

So what exactly is a page title and where can you find it?

The page title (or title tag or title element) should appear on every page. In HTML code it looks something like this.

<title>SEO copywriting UK, SEO copywriter | Turner Ink Copywriting London UK</title>

This is taken from the SEO copywriting page on this site. If you want to take a look for yourself, click on the link above, click on View in your toolbar, and then click on Source. (In Internet Explorer only. Other browsers will be similar.)

The page title appears at the top of your browser window when you’re looking at a web page. Here’s the page title for the SEO copywriting page on this website.

Page title in browser window screenshot

So where else does it appear? Oooh this is the good bit. Because the page title is also used for the clickable blue link on the SERPs.

So the SEO copywriting page on this website appears like this on Google.

Page title showing in Google SERPs

Too many companies use just their company name for every single page title. Imagine Google having to sift through a bunch of page titles which all say Barrett and Bloggs Ltd? How will Google have any kind of clue as to what each page is about? Or how about pages which only say Home, About Us, or Welcome? They will have Google scratching their heads.

Your page title should say ‘Hey Google, check this page out. It’s all about SEO copywriting from UK SEO copywriter Turner Ink in London’. Google are then under absolutely no illusion that this page is about SEO copywriting. Not someone selling blue socks. No blue socks here Mr Google, please move along.

So what’s the format for a page title? Up to 65 characters (including spaces). Your keyword or keyphrase at the start (unless you’re a super famous company like Ikea or Kodak). Then a divider, like a vertical pipe or hyphen. Then your company name. And where you are. And remember every page has a different page title. A bit like every chapter in a book having a different heading.

And that’s about it. Just 65 teeny tiny characters. But such a vital part of SEO.


Tags: page titles, seo writing
Posted in Website & SEO copywriting | comments icon 3 Comments »

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